4 1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and
exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye
ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord
Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4That
every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in
sanctification and honour; 5Not in the lust of
concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6That
no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that
the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you
and testified. 7For God hath not called us unto
uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8He therefore that
despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us
his holy Spirit. 9But as touching brotherly love ye need
not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to
love one another. 10And indeed ye do it toward all the
brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren,
that ye increase more and more; 11And that ye study to be
quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands,
as we commanded you; 12That ye may walk honestly toward
them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. 13But
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them
which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these
words.